Taara, a graduate of Google’s moonshot factory X, has introduced Lightbridge Pro — an optical wireless solution designed to deliver carrier-grade uptime and reliability for high-speed wireless backhaul.
Network operators often face a trade-off: demand for fiber-like bandwidth clashes with the cost and difficulty of trenching fiber in dense urban areas or challenging terrain. Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) offers a no-dig alternative, but atmospheric conditions such as fog and heavy rain have historically limited its use in mission-critical networks.
Lightbridge Pro aims to overcome that limitation by combining Taara’s existing 20 Gbps full-duplex wireless optical link with integrated, hitless switching. The system automatically and seamlessly switches traffic between the optical path and a backup medium (for example, RF or fiber) based on link health, eliminating the multi-second delays common with external switching equipment. That near-immediate switchover is crucial for applications requiring real-time performance and strict service-level agreements (SLAs), such as private 5G, industrial control, and public-sector connectivity.
Optical switching for reliability in hybrid networks
For wholesale carriers, TowerCos, and city-wide providers, turning simple transport links into managed, SLA-backed services depends on consistent uptime and integrated management. Lightbridge Pro’s built-in switching maintains continuity during adverse weather by performing an internal, hitless failover to the designated backup path. This approach preserves the user experience and meets the availability expectations of modern carrier networks.
Taara’s CEO Mahesh Krishnaswamy states that Lightbridge Pro delivers “fiber-grade capacity over the air with no digging, no delays—upgrading operators’ existing infrastructure in a matter of hours.” Beyond throughput, the product emphasizes operational practicality: it supports comprehensive Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) management and can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud.
Integration with carrier Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) lets operators manage Lightbridge Pro as part of their existing monitoring and orchestration stacks. In-band management and combined monitoring of the multiband solution through the integrated switch reduce operational overhead and help IT teams run hybrid networks from a single dashboard without extensive re-architecting.
Market validation and deployment of Taara Lightbridge
Taara’s Lightbridge technology is already in use across more than 20 countries. Operators including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and SoftBank have deployed variants of the system to expand capacity in dense urban zones and in remote regions where fiber deployment is impractical or cost-prohibitive. By meeting higher availability thresholds, Lightbridge Pro reduces a key barrier to adoption: it can function as a primary backhaul link rather than merely a temporary or supplemental capacity boost.
Taara also plans to introduce a photonics-based wireless optical system that increases density and scalability, enabling light-based connectivity to evolve beyond point-to-point links and support distributed urban deployments. Combined with hitless switching, these advances shift how network planners approach expansion: high-capacity backhaul becomes feasible in locations where civil works would otherwise prevent timely or economical deployment.
When evaluating wireless optical systems, organisations should focus on total cost of ownership and time-to-market. Solutions that integrate smoothly with existing OSS/BSS environments and provide unified management for hybrid links lower adoption friction and let teams scale capacity faster while retaining the operational controls required for carrier-grade service.
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